CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION About the middle of the second century Justin Martyr engaged in an active defense of Christianity against paganism, Judaism,J udaism, and heretical forms of Christianity for which work he can safely be cailed the first outstanding Christian apologist. As a young man Justin sought after the truth in the pagan philosophies of Stoicism, Aristotelianism, Pythagorea­ nism, and Platonism; but shortly after his conversion to Christianity in about 130I30 Justin opened in Rome a Christian school of philosophy from which he fearlessly defended Christianity until his martyrdom in about 165.I65. In his role as a Christian apologist Justin wrote for those inside the church as weil as for those outside to whom many of his writings were formallyformaIly addressed. His work, therefore, certainly had a catechetical as weIl as an apologetic purpose. Justin's writings frequently contain passages reminiscent of passages from the canonical gospels, and for the last two centuries many scholars have been trying to ascertain the exact literary relationship between the writings of Justin and the canonical gospels. 1l Justin's deviation from the text of the canonical gospels has been variously attributed in the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth century to failure of memory,memory,22 to the use of one or more extra-canonical gospels,gospels,33 1 It is beyond the scope of this work to recount the history of research con­ cerning the problem of Justin's literary relationship to the canonical gospels, especially the older studies of the last century. A detailed account of this history can be found in the following works: Wilhelm Bousset, Die Evangeliencitate fustins des Märtyrers in ihrem Wert für die Evangelienkritik (Göttingen, 1891), pp. 1-12; Carl August Credner, Beiträge zur Einleitung in die biblischen Schriften (Halle, 1832), pp. 133-149; Adolf Hilgenfeld, Kritische Untersuchungen über die Evangelien fustin's, der Clementinischen Homilien und Marcion's (Halle, 1850), pp. 31-45; Karl Semisch, Die apostolischen Denkwürdigkeiten des Märtyrers fustinus (Hamburg, 1848), pp. 16-60. 2 Semisch, see especially pp. 389 ff; Theodor Zahn, Geschichte des neutestament­ lichen Kanons, I, 2 (Erlangen, 1888), pp. 463-585. 3 Credner maintained that Justin used as his source the extra-canonical Gospel according to Peter, a document that Credner regarded as essentially identical to the Diatessaron of Tatian, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews (Beiträge, see especially p. 266; and Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons [Berlin, 1860],1860J, see especiallypp. 21 f.). The position that Justin used the Gospel according to Peter was defended again by Hilgenfeld, who also maintained that Justin used in addition the Protoevangelium of fames. The thesis that Justin used a fourth synoptic gospel Supp!. to Novum Testamentum XVII 3 2 INTRODUCTION to the use of pre-synoptic material,l and to the use of a post-synoptic harmony;2 and it has sometimes been maintained that there is no way to prove the use of any source other than the canonical gospels. 3 During this century, on the other hand, there have been fewer studies concerning Justin's dependence on gospel material. E. R. Buckley has proposed the thesis that Justin first became acquainted with many of the sayings of Jesus in a source in which these sayings "occurred in a some­ what different form and often in a different context from that in which they occur in the canonical Gospels," and that "this source may have been that to which Justin refers as 'the Gospel' in Dialogue 100."IOO." 4 Buckley believed that Justin later read the synoptic gospels but that his quotations were taken not from them but from this other gospel, which also probably provided "some account of the life and death of Christ as well as a collection of his sayings." 5 In an unpublished doctoral thesis E. L. Titus acknowledged the possi­ bility that Justin may have quoted from memory, 6 but his principal thesis was that there were dominant motivations that accounted for the textual variants in the writings of Justin, whether his sources were oral or written; and he has divided these motivations into the following categories: historieal,historical, harmonistic, ethical and practical, stylistic, expla­ natory, and dogmatic. 7 Leon E. Wright maintained that Justin may have used the canonical gospels, but he has questioned the use of a harmony because of Justin's was put forth by G. Volkmar (Ober Justinjustin den Märtyrer und sein Verhältniss zu unsern Evangelien [Zurich, 1853J), and A. Thoma argued that Justin knew a fifth canonical gospel ("Justins literarisches Verhältnis zu Paulus und zum J ohannis­ evangelium," Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, XVIII [1875J, pp. 383-412, 490 -565). 1 Bousset, see especially pp. 114II4 f. 2 Moritz von Engelhardt, Das Christenthum Justinsjustins des i'J1IJärtyrersärtyrers (Erlangen, 1878), pp. 335 ff., especially p. 345; William Sanday, The Gospels in the Second Century (London, 1876), pp. 136 ff., note I; Ernst Lippelt, Quae Fuerint Jjustini ustini Martyris AIIOMNHMONEYMATA Quaeque Ratione Cum Forma Syro-Latina Cohaeserint (Halle, 1901 ), p. 35. 3 Brooke Foss Westcott, A GeneralGeneralSurvey Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament (London, 1870), pp. 133, 148; Aloys Baldus, Das Verhältnis Justinsjustins des Märtyrers zu unsern synoptischen Evangelien (Münster, 1895), pp. 98 ff. 4 E. R. Buckley, "Justin Martyr's Quotations from the Synoptic Tradition," Journaljournal ofTheological Studies, XXXVI (1935), p. 175. •6 Ibid., pp. 175 f. 8 Eric Lane Titus, "The Motivations of Changes Made in the New Testament by Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria: A Study in the Origin of New Testament Variation," Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation (University of Chicago, 1942), p. 7· 7 Ibid., p. 12. .